He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 NKJV

 

When I first read this I thought "Really?  How can anyone have a problem with these?"  But then it occurred to me that these things are not required just when they are the popular thing to do or when they are what anyone would do.  Those don't even count really.  It's when it would be awkward to speak up for someone that it matters what we do.  It's when we don't even like the person that's guilty that we have to love mercy, even if we think it's about time they got caught.  And walking humbly?  Do we even know what that looks like in this culture?  Try going out of turn at the four way stop and I'll show you some humble! 

So after thinking about it, it's pretty clear that doing these things is not even a little bit easy, and doesn't come naturally to most of us.  Getting this right will take constant effort.  If we work hard enough and long enough, we should move a little closer to the standard.  And figuring out how poorly we're doing on the first two requirements goes a long way toward helping us get better at that third one.

For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed.

Isaiah 9:16 NKJV

 

There it is in black and white.  Bad leaders don't just destroy themselves.  They take us good people down with them.  When I saw this my first thought was Yes!  This is all about those politicians the "other" side keeps electing!  If we don't get them out, they will be our downfall!  I suspect that no matter what party we support, we all read this that same way. 

 

But then I looked at the rest of the chapter.  It's about Israel - the northern kingdom specifically - before they were conquered by Assyria, turned into slaves, and those not killed taken back to Assyria.  The northern 10 tribes were never again a nation - not to this day.  This was the end of them as a people.  So when you read it, you see that it is not really about the US in 2019.  It is neither about us nor is it meant for us in the literal sense.  And it is not a prophecy about us.  It was about Israel.  So we could maybe consider just blowing the whole thing off as not our concern, not to mention it's ancient history.

 

But if you read it anyway, you find out it wasn't just the leaders who were messed up.  It was everyone.  Elders, prophets, young men, orphans, and widows are all mentioned, and every one of them is called evil.  Evil orphans?  Things are really bad when orphans are evil.  It says they had turned against each other and against themselves.  Israel was destroying itself from within and they were individually and collectively responsible for the coming destruction.  From those with no social status at all to the very top of the social ladder, all of them were part of the problem.

 

So even though Isaiah 9:8 - 10:4 was not written about the US in 2019, it sure has a familiar ring to it.  Sounds a lot like last night's news, in fact.  It wasn't written about us, but maybe we ought to pay attention to it as if it was.  Maybe we ought to get started changing some things.  You know, just in case what happened to Israel is some kind of principal that still applies instead of a unique historical event.

In our culture we have attached a negative connotation to the word "submission".  We consider submission to anyone or anything to be degrading and shaming.  We see submission as something that is forced upon us and that we do unwillingly. Like being forced to shake hands with someone we despise or like having to clean the toilet with a toothbrush because the drill sergeant orders us to.  We see it as "tapping out" because we're in a hold from which we cannot escape.  We see it as a sign of weakness and loss.  

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That is NOT what the Bible means when it says we are to submit to government, it is NOT what is meant by wives submit to your husbands, by slaves submit to your masters, or that all are to submit to God.  The submission the Bible refers to can look differently in different cultures.  For instance, at one time in this country, if a woman worked outside the home it was considered an insult to her husband.  So at that time, it did not meet the biblical meaning of submission.  It shamed him to have a working wife.  Today, not so much.  Today, it takes two wage earners to make ends meet.  A wife who works no longer implies that her husband is incapable of supporting his family.  

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Biblical submission is about giving up control, not personal identity.  It is about trust, not resignation.  Biblical submission does NOT require anyone to endure abuse from another person!  Biblical submission is something you do because you choose to do so, and you can hold your head up when you do it.

 

This explanation is from Dr. Bobby Kelly, on May 6, 2018.  The message was on I Peter 2:13- 3:7.  I have never before heard it put so well.